Awareness & Education

Educating children is at the heart of BLOOM’s mission. As the future agents of change, children need to understand ecosystems in order to be able to protect them. Education is an essential long-term investment.

BLOOM organizes events to give children a better understanding of the sea and help them to protect it. These include a play using giant puppets, an art and science competition and a teaching kit.

THE SHARK SQUAD

The Shark Squad is an educational show about the sea, and the result of a partnership between two non-profit organizations with different skills, but the same philosophy: Et Demain and BLOOM both aim to encourage environmental protection through education. Through dialogue, emotions and outreach, we aim to share our experiences, put the truth on display without exhibits, and offer the widest possible access to a plethora of reliable scientific information, using methods that complement traditional teaching.

Play written and directed by Emmanuel Suarez, in collaboration with Claire Nouvian.

Awarded the “J’apprends la mer” (“I learn about the sea”) label by France’s Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Territorial Development.

Reviews

“The Shark Squad” is a show that succeeds in bringing together artistic excellence with scientific rigor. A true delight!” Ouest France

“Simply great! The puppets are magnificent and extremely funny; the jazz soundtrack – an innovative choice – is superb and well sung. (…) Even thought the show targets children, adults also learn from its messages and won’t be bored for a second.”Radio Neptune

“The Shark Squad” breaks down the barriers between science and art and makes room for poetry within biology, letting sea creatures speak for themselves. It is playfully and enchantingly staged: a maze of umbrellas becomes a coral reef and the lighting recreates the magical atmosphere of the deep sea. The actors do an astonishing job: the marionettes seem to swim through the air. (…) The play has a real educational dimension and its scientific content is faultless.” Ouest France

“An astonishing puppet show – both fun and educational. (…) The set, music and audiovisuals transmit precise scientific content in an artistic form that is particularly well-adapted for a young audience and complements school teaching”. Le Télégramme de Brest

2000 METERS UNDER THE SEA: A COMPETITION RUN IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ATOMES CROCHUS

What if future generations were to commit the full force of their creativity and inventiveness to protecting the oceans? It’s time to let their imaginations loose on the challenge of the deep sea.

A pamphlet-style book about the oceans (to be published in September 2009) BLOOM’s marine education projects aren’t just aimed at kids. Claire Nouvian’s book will chart the unprecedented ecological crisis that the oceans face, exposing the perverted mechanisms at work in man’s turbulent relationship with the ocean. This pamphlet-style book will offer an agenda for action so that everyone can follow the steps that will lead to a sea change.
An exhibition guide for adults, written in collaboration with Peter Batson, will be available at the exhibition locations in Taiwan in 2009. The Chinese translation is on its way!

Combining science, the visual arts and the ecological agenda in one competition, the “2 000 Meters Under the Sea” contest offers young people aged 10 to 20 the chance to pitch their wits against the creativity of the deep sea by imagining an animal able to survive there. Educational establishments in France and abroad can register their pupils and receive a free teaching kit for the competition, including an educational booklet, breathtaking photos, and videos allowing pupils to experience the deep sea as if they were there… This year’s teaching kit aims to help teachers and assistants run the project with their class. From a discovery of animals worthy of science-fiction films to the information sheet for the “imaginary creatures”, the kit provides everything staff need to help pupils discover the creativity of the deep sea.

TEACHER TRAINING & CONTENT SHARING

Since 2006, the book and the exhibition The Deep have been used as educational platforms to reach the public.
Claire Nouvian has given guided tours of the exhibition in Paris and in Hong Kong to important policy makers and economical agents. She has also organised programs to inform secondary school biology teachers about life in the deep sea, deep-sea bottom trawling and other threats looming over marine biodiversity, in cooperation with the Natural History Museum and the French Ministry of Education.

EDUCATIONAL PUBLICATIONS & ACTIONS

BLOOM has developed educational materials and games for children and adults.

BOOKLET TO THE EXHIBITION, THE DEEP

CASE STUDY

The very first project that BLOOM Association ever created was a marine-study program called “Générations Océans”, organized with teachers from a high school in France.

The program, which continues to date, focuses on studying the impact of pollution on marine habitats by monitoring two zones with different levels of human impact. This enables children to experience firsthand the concept of “shifting baselines”, or in other words, the collective amnesia that paralyses our societies and lies at the root of dysfunctional management plans. The program won the second prize for ‘Best Scientific Communication’ at the National High School Scientific Congress, Exposcience, in Poitiers, 2006.